New York City Mayoral Candidate Quinn Raised Money on Paid Trips

Political Action Committee Picked Up Travel Expenses in Houston, San Diego and Chicago for Mayoral Candidate

By

Michael Howard Saul

June 12, 2013 9:28 p.m. ET

A political action committee paid to ferry New York City mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn to events around the country, raising questions from watchdog groups about whether Ms. Quinn's campaign is skirting campaign-finance laws.

ENLARGE

Christine Quinn in May.
Andrew Hinderaker for The Wall Street Journal

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The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which endorsed Ms. Quinn and had collected $165,000 in contributions for her mayoral campaign as of last month, paid her to travel to the PAC's fundraising events in Houston, San Diego and Chicago. Records filed with the city's Campaign Finance Board show Ms. Quinn's mayoral campaign accrued more than $20,000 in contributions from dozens of donors in those cities around the same time as the PAC's events.

If elected, Ms. Quinn would be the city's first female and first openly gay mayor.

On the Houston trip in April 2011, Ms. Quinn attended a fundraising event for the Victory Fund and participated in a separate fundraising event for her mayoral campaign. Reports filed with the city's Conflicts of Interest Board show the Victory Fund personally reimbursed Ms. Quinn between $1,000 and $5,000 for her travel expenses to Houston in 2011, and reimbursed her for an amount in the same range for trips to San Diego and Chicago last year.

Candidates who participate in the city's campaign finance program, such as Ms. Quinn, agree to limits on how much their campaigns may spend—$6.7 million in the primary—in exchange for receiving taxpayer-funded matching funds. At issue here is whether Ms. Quinn's campaign is benefiting directly from these events by not recording expenses associated with the trips.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause New York, a watchdog group, said these trips raise "real questions" because it appears as if it's a "way around" city campaign finance laws that place restrictions on in-kind contributions. "When she accepts these sorts of engagements, she benefits disproportionately from them, even though they are headlined as being for the Victory Fund—the expected consequence is that individuals will contribute directly to her for her campaign," Ms. Lerner said.

Michael Morey, a spokesman for Ms. Quinn's campaign, said Ms. Quinn attended the Victory Fund events in her role as a government official who is openly gay. He said the Conflicts of Interest Board informed Ms. Quinn that she can be reimbursed for the travel, but said the campaign did not seek a separate opinion from the Campaign Finance Board. He said the campaign believes it's complied with the law. In some cases, the campaign paid for expenses related to these trips, Mr. Morey said, but he could not immediately specify how much. He also could not say how many separate campaign events she held in conjunction with the PAC's events.

"Any costs associated with campaign or fundraising activities, independent of her appearances before the Victory Fund, the campaign works diligently to report as part of our regular campaign finance reporting," he said. "We are reviewing all of those expenses to ensure full compliance."

Eric Friedman, a spokesman for the Campaign Finance Board, said he couldn't comment on the specifics of this particular situation. But Ms. Quinn's campaign, as with every city campaign, will be audited by the board to ensure compliance with the law, he said.

In total, Ms. Quinn, considered the front-runner for the Democratic mayoral nomination, has raised more than $7 million in contributions. Ms. Quinn, speaker of the City Council, is leading all of her competitors in fundraising.

"I heard her speak and then I said to her I'd be delighted if you'd like me to put together, the next time you're in the city, a fundraiser for you. They took me up on it," said Ms. Clifford, who held two events for Ms. Quinn, both in 2011. "She called, like, three times to thank me. And I thought, 'Wow, you don't get that very often from political candidates.'"

Ms. Clifford, who has donated $3,000 to Ms. Quinn's campaign, said she's convinced many friends to donate as well.

In February 2012, Christine Kehoe, a former state senator of California, attended a Champagne brunch sponsored by the Victory Fund at the San Diego Catamaran Resort Hotel & Spa. Ms. Quinn was the event's keynote speaker.

"I had a chance to hear her talk about the issues and the political scene in New York," Ms. Kehoe recalled. "I learned a lot about her politics and her style that day."

Ms. Kehoe said she had an opportunity to interact personally with Ms. Quinn and said her "take-away" from the event was that Ms. Quinn would be running for mayor. Ms. Quinn didn't officially announce her candidacy until March of this year.

Ms. Kehoe contributed $250 to Ms. Quinn's campaign. When asked if the event led to her decision to contribute, Ms. Kehoe said, "Yeah."

According to New York City records, the Victory Fund served as an intermediary for $7,450 in donations to Ms. Quinn's campaign in the days surrounding the San Diego brunch. Of those donors, two sit on the organization's board of directors and two sit on other panels connected to the group.

Denis Dison, vice president of communications at the Victory Fund, said the organization holds about 10 fundraising events around the country every year. The organization tries to attract high-profile speakers to pull in the biggest crowd possible, and it is the organization's custom to pay for speakers' travel expenses, he said.

"The fact that she's running for mayor obviously that's in the national news," he said. "That only increases the draw that attaches to her being there."

Mr. Dison said speakers at the PAC's events could benefit personally from appearing. "I'm sure that having met the candidates that folks who attend our brunch might be more inclined to support them if they're asked," Mr. Dison said.

Tara Malloy, a former lawyer at the Campaign Finance Board who now serves as senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit in Washington, said she understands the concerns that have been raised because Ms. Quinn is "getting basically an in-kind contribution from this group at least insofar as she's not simply promoting their agenda but also using it to raise her own profile and to fundraise."

"That's really going to have to be a judgment call by the New York City Campaign Finance Board if they indeed get involved or if a complaint is filed," Ms. Malloy said.

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